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| Davis Green, Birdie Mae (Thomas) | Return to Obituaries |
| Davis Green, Birdie Mae (Thomas) | |
| Age: 94 Passed Away: 2009-06-28 Funeral Home: Jones-Washington Mortuary |
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Birdie Mae Thomas Davis Green, 94, of Bryan, passed away on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at her residence. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, with a wake service from 7 to 8 p.m. at Jones-Washington Mortuary in Bryan. Services are set for 11 a.m. at Shiloh Baptist church with the Rev. William H. Green Jr., officiating. Interment will follow at Oakwood Cemetery in Bryan. Birdie Mae Thomas Davis Green was born in the Edge community on February 7, 1915 to Lillie Williams and Joe Thomas. An only child, she grew up with her mother Lillie, and her maternal grandparents who were emancipated slaves. At birth she was named Mae Bird until the name was later changed to Birdie Mae. Those who remembered her from her childhood fondly called her Mae Bird. Following the death of her grandparents, Birdie and her mother moved to the growing town of Bryan and settled in the Candy Hill neighborhood. She played basketball at E.A. Kemp High School, where she graduated in 1934, and secured a scholarship as a Forward on the women's basketball team at Sam Huston College, now called Huston-Tillotson College. For several decades she worded as domestic help to some of Bryan-College Station's leading families including the Brayton family, the Brogdons and most notably, the Sale family. In later years, Birdie attended and graduated from Wooley's Beauty School and became a licensed beautician. She owned and operated Birdie's Beauty Shop for many years and was a founding member of the City Wide Beauticians Club. Birdie was also a founding member of the Negro Womans' Club in 1945, now known as the Bethune Womans' Club. Birdie was also a member of the Eastern Star Jewel Chapter No. 24, and the Golden Girls. In 1995, at the sprightly age of 80, she helped run and manage Third Day Creations Florist, which her family owned and operated. Birdie was a member of the Shiloh Baptist Church for over 80 years and was a member of the Deborah Missionary Circle. But without question the most notable role which has defined Birdie's life, has been that of mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, to her own children and as "surrogate mother" to the children of the families she had worked for. Even in adulthood she has maintained a warm relationship with the Sale children, Stephanie, Courtney and Lindsey. It was in her honor and in the memory of her late husband that the Sale Estate bequeathed the Birdie and Jack Green Meditation Garden to the Brazos Valley African American Museum. Her fondness for her own grandchildren, Charles, Gwen and Gloria Davis, garnered her the nick name "Nanny". Birdie occupied the same home she shared with her husband for 41 years, even though she was wheelchair bound and a 29-year survivor of breast cancer. She unabashedly credited the goodness of God as the source of her strength, along with the support of her children and the Senior Ministry of the Shiloh Baptist Church. When asked once how she garnered the strength to push a Hoover through her home in her wheelchair, she simply smiled and stated, "I just turn things over into the hands of the Lord and He works it all out." She was preceeded in death by her husband, William H. Jack Green Sr., and her daughter –in-law, Annie G. Davis. Survivors to lovingly cherish her memory are her sons, Dr. Wendell Charles Davis Jr., of Bryan, Rev. William H. Jack Green, II and Dr. Sharon Knotts-Green, of Barrington, Ill.; grandchildren, Charles Littlejohn and wife, Elizabeth, of Stone Mountain, Ga., Gwen Davis, of Longview, Texas and Gloria Davis, Cypress, Texas; great-grandchildren, Trachelle Collins, of Houston, Ben Collins Jr., of Cypress, Texas and Michelle Hilliard and husband, Darrell, of Lithonia, Ga.; three great-great-grandchildren, Wesley and Gerald Hilliard, of Lithonia, Ga. and Milton Johnson III, of Cypress, Texas; special niece, Edith Harris; God daughters, Doris Stearnes, Brenda Owens and Aubra Owens Carter, all of Bryan. The family would like to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to the staff at St. Joseph Life Line, Edith Ellis Harris and Deacon Dewayne Broaddus, Rose Gregg and Barbara Wright for their care and compassion to our family. The family requests memorial donations may be made to Brazos Valley African American Museum or the Senior Ministry of Shiloh Baptist Church. |
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